Scientists have found a way to know how to boost a person's antibodies in their immune system. Since not all antibodies have the same structure, researchers have found a way to determine the better antibody's sugar group structure.
The new method has made it easier for biochemists to identify and multiply the better antibodies with consistent sugar groups, Science Daily explained. Researchers from the University of Maryland and Rockefeller University have also studied on how to determine the specific sugar combinations. The combinations were analyzed, whether it can enhance and/or suppress an antibody's capability to command the immune system to attack an intruder. The study, which was published in the March 13, 2017 early online edition of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", is a very important direction that will lead to the cure of cancer and other incurable diseases.
The ability of the antibody to send signals to attack an invader hugely depends on the protein and the arrangement of sugar chains attached to it stated Medical Xpress. In most cases, the natural antibodies have different set up of sugar chains. Also, the antibodies used in many disease therapies have many different variables of antibodies; everything depends on their sugar groups. The glycoforms, which is one of the therapeutic antibodies, can also be distinguished by its sugar group.
Scientists have collected the best antibody types in the glycoforms, like what they are doing in the newly discovered method. However, the old method was very expensive and time-consuming, plus it was not 100 percent guaranteed to work. The new method will be further studied and biochemists will find out what type is the best for attacking and suppressing an antibody.
"With this, we can now look at how individual different sugars affect the properties of antibodies. Until this study, we didn't have an efficient way to know how individual sugars in various glycoforms affect suppression or activation of the immune response," said Lai-Xi Wang, a professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UMD.
